Latinas not joining work force

WASHINGTON — It took Carolina Walters Espinoza nearly 10 years after coming to the United States from Venezuela to feel valued in the workplace.

The degree she earned in marketing in Venezuela didn’t have the same clout in the states. Language interfered with her ability to get into her chosen field. And low wages disheartened her.

“It made me feel completely underappreciated, because I wasn’t working any less than my counterparts,” said Walters Espinoza, who works for the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “It affects your self-esteem. It affects your motivation.”

The barriers she had to overcome may be deterring other Latinas from entering the work force, experts in the field say. According to a report released by the National Council of La Raza last week, Latinas have the lowest labor force participation rate of all major U.S. racial and ethnic groups.

“The tragedy is that Hispanic women continue to be in the same place they’ve been for at least 30 years,” said Polly Baca, chief executive officer of the Latin American Research and Service Agency in Denver.

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Baca attributes the inertia to the cost of higher education, which makes it impossible for many Latinas to earn degrees. According to the La Raza study, in 2004, 41.8 percent of all Latinas age 15-64 did not even have high school diplomas.

Lower levels of education and poor English-language skills can lead many Latinas to the service sector, where they accept lower-paying jobs that don’t usually offer health insurance, said Misha Werschkul, research associate for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in D.C.

According to La Raza, a Latino advocacy group in Washington, in 2004 the median hourly wage for Latinas was $9.04 per hour, compared to $10.21 for white women, $9.93 for black women and $10.57 for Asian-Americans. In 2001, only 38.8 percent of Latinas had employer-provided group health insurance in their own names.

Discrimination in the work force may also deter women from seeking jobs, Werschkul said.

Legislators need to help Latinas access education and higher-paying jobs, said Carmen Carillo, executive director of Mi Casa Resource Center for Women in Denver. This includes assisting with day care, health insurance and education.

“It’s an ever-present need,” Carillo said. “The women are the working poor and they absolutely need not a handout but a hand up.”

Megan Elliot, employment policy fellow at La Raza, said the most important part of the report is the significant effect Latinas have on the economy. According to 2003 Census data, median incomes of married-couple Latino families were 85.2 percent higher when the wife was in the paid labor force.

“Our main priority is always our family,” said Walters Espinoza. “So it doesn’t matter what the stats say, we’ll strive to be part of the work force, successful and appreciated.”